The Christmas Countdown Begins!

I'm so excited to start my Christmas countdown with you all! I've been thinking about how much I love this time of year, and I just can't wait to get started on decorating my office and downstairs. I've got a few new wrapping paper designs that I just have to share with you, including these really oversized snowflakes that I've never seen before - they're huge! I think it would be cute to either put them in a tree or hang them out on the wall. And of course, I've also got my Christmas garland that I was so hyped for, which I'm already displaying proudly.

I've also got my Advent calendar like Christmas Village, and let me tell you - it's stunning! I couldn't wait to get it out and start using it, and I just know we're going to have so much fun with it over the next couple of weeks. I love how festive and cozy it makes everything feel. And speaking of festivity, I'm feeling like I'm totally in the Christmas spirit right now - I just want to decorate and enjoy all the holiday cheer!

Ancient Lies Review

Okay, let's get into my review of Ancient Lies by Fiona Darling. I have to say, I was a bit disappointed with this one. I ended up giving it three stars, which isn't exactly what I'd call glowing. The first three books in the series are definitely solid, and I loved them - but there just seemed to be something missing in this particular installment. It felt like the story lost its direction and purpose, and that was a bit frustrating for me as a fan of Fiona's writing.

I did love the unrequited love storyline that ran throughout this book - I'm a big fan of those kinds of stories! But unfortunately, it didn't quite work out the way I'd hoped. The reveal of Jonathan/Nova's trauma and what caused him to feel unworthy of love was interesting, but I felt like it could have been handled better. It kind of felt like a throwaway thing that happened at just the right moment in the story - rather than being a fully fleshed-out part of the plot.

I also noticed that Fiona Darling tends to skip over some important emotional details in her stories. We see so much dialogue and internal monologue from her characters, but sometimes it feels like the really important stuff is glossed over. For example, I wish we'd seen more of Nova's inner struggle with his trauma - it felt like he just kind of wallowed in it without really confronting it or working through it.

One thing that did bug me was how quickly the characters seemed to jump from being forbidden to being intimate. It didn't feel like there was a lot of tension or pushback between them, and I think that's what made the romance feel a bit flat. I'm not sure if I'm just expecting too much - but in stories about taboo relationships, it often feels like there needs to be some resistance or challenge for things to make sense.

That being said, this book did have its moments! The dirty talk was definitely up to par with Fiona Darling's other books, and the overall plot of the series did move forward a bit. So while I didn't love Ancient Lies as much as I'd hoped, it wasn't a total disappointment either.

Other Thoughts

I've been thinking about whether or not I want to do dedicated Christmas Vlogs instead of these weekly reading videos. We'll have to see how things go - but for now, I'm just going to roll with it! One thing's for sure: I'm feeling festive and excited to get into the holiday spirit.

That's all for today, folks! Thanks so much for tuning in and chatting with me about Ancient Lies. If you've read this book, what did you think of it? Do you have any favorite Christmas decorations or traditions that you want to share? Let me know in the comments!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello welcome back to my channel and welcome to the start of another weekly reading Vlog I am not excited to be filming this that's actually not true but I just feel like I say I'm excited every time and this time you know what I am excited but I'm also sort of like tentative because this is an absolutely insane week in my life I am working on my Choose Your Own Adventure Vlog that I am going to be posting on Sunday of this week and that has really been just swamping me down it's a Tuesday not a Monday that's why I'm starting this late it's just I've been overwhelmed with The Thrillers that I'm reading for that video in a good way like their audiobooks it's fun it's a nice listening experience but I just feel like I haven't gotten a lot of time to talk to you all my friends and to uh just get on with my week and like get get moving get Kraken but Tuesday is that day today we are doing some stuff more in the Quest for me to get my life together and I hope you are ready to come along with me so on the docket for today I think I'm really intent on doing a lot of the things that I've been putting off forever which is packaging gifts for my friends that I have purchased for them I just like never sent out I need to package up some returns Pro tip if you have old Tech turn in that before it becomes so obsolete that you can't get money for it I was looking through my closet in my office actually and I found an old like Amazon Echo or Amazon Alexa device and I was like I don't ever use this why don't I just send this back to Amazon and get 25 for it so I need to do that and package up a Kindle as well I also need to stop by Ulta for some more concealer I'll probably buy some like other goodies and you know do a little haul for you later on in the week probably tomorrow but the biggest thing that I'd really like to get done for this week besides reading would be to clean my house I know thrilling stuff but I really want to prep for the upcoming winter season for Christmas I have all of my Halloween decor behind me my fall decor and I think it'd be really nice to be able to put all of that stuff away in advance usually I do everything all at once I take down all of my Halloween stuff and up my Christmas stuff kind of in the same day but I don't want to do that this time I really want to take my time with taking down that fall Decor putting it in my totes in a very clean and organized way if I'm gonna rush I just kind of throw things around but I want to make sure everything is really nice and organized so that I can deep clean my house before getting out my Christmas stuff I am looking forward to a really like let's say Decor packed Christmas this year I've purchased some new things I'm really excited about I'm excited to get everything out but I feel like if you have a lot of Decor out it can look cluttered and it can also be hard to like clean around the stuff that you're putting out so again gonna take the fall stuff down going to kind of clean my house maybe not clean deeply my house this week but take the stuff down in anticipation of cleaning and anticipation putting up my Christmas decor I've already talked to Hayden about it and I think I'm going to continue on with the tradition that I had last year which is to put up my Christmas tree on my birthday which is November 14th so I have some time I have some time before that happens I think today is November 2nd so I have some time to like clean organize get things ready and then obviously I'm going to be reading this week let me go grab my selections for what I am hoping to get finished so the two books that I have been kind of eyeing from my physical TBR lately are England Lies by Gianna darling and Babel by RF Quang I didn't think that I would be purchasing this but I had some leftover money from a trade-in I guess you could say or like I sold some books to have phrase books had some cash from that and decided to use some of that cash for this book I don't know it was one of those books that like everybody was talking about I felt like I needed to join in on the hype and the party and I could be wrong but I feel like this is a standalone novel which makes it more appealing and even if it is a series I don't think it's gonna be like some 10 book series so I feel like it's less of a commitment I don't know much about this although it seems a little like dark academia-esque so I need to give this one a try and give you like my thoughts and feelings I think it might be ambitious to try to finish this while I'm also reading two Thrillers a day but like I'll give you my thoughts and feelings as I read if I don't finish it this week I'll finish it next week and then lies I think is going to be the perfect contrast kind of to the other stuff that I'm reading you know a fantasy and then a bunch of Thrillers I need a romance in my life and this one follows our main character Nova I want to say and his relationship with this girl who's been like pining for him for years and years he's like the Pretty Boy of the motorcycle club I'm very excited for the story it's also very long so I don't know how hard it's going to be to get through this one as well but these are kind of my goals for this week um other things um crumble cookies was closed yesterday I was actually going to start this Vlog last night a crumble was closed and I didn't what else was I gonna do in the car with Hayden just like sit there and talk no so if I do get crumble later on this week I will do a little crumple review but uh let's go ahead and get time lapsing I think I'm gonna go ahead and pull down some of this fall Decor up here and the fall Decor downstairs we can just like get started on the right foot this week foreign together take me to the Jungle teach me a poem sing to you a song with you I am blessed is hi do you need me to hold you again hello it is later I actually was able to run some of my errands today we had to go get food since we didn't have any groceries super fun and exciting stuff so I was able to go to Ulta so I was going to give you a little Ulta haul and tell you how I'm feeling about Inked and lies and also break the news to you sadly that I will not be reading Babel in this video after I told you that I was going to read Babble I actually asked people on Instagram a couple of days ago like hey what's your favorite book of 2022 because I like to do that I like to read your favorite books of a given year Babble by far is the most loved book of 2022 so I want to read that for that video so I'm going to save it and instead I'm going to read Words of Radiance and like talk about it in this video I was like really on the fence about what I wanted to do about about Stormlight Archive if I wanted to do designated Vlogs or whatever I've decided I don't want to do that I just want to enjoy the books and just update you as I read them so first let me give you a little Ulta haul it's very unexciting first up shape tape I did in fact buy a full size of this I normally don't I normally buy the minis because for some reason the big size of this always gets really like gum Gummy and like gunked up near the opening and it grosses me out and I hate it but it's just more cost effective obviously to buy the full size so I did that and I'm gonna try to keep it upright and see if that helps this time and obviously I got it in 8B porcelain beige the lightest shade that they have new products for me that I tried I kind of have it on it's like faded though is the tarte maracuja juicy lip plump in mixed berries love this already like it's so delightful it's just a slippery I guess you could say lipstick and it has a pretty intense tingle which I like definitely not a burn but A tingle and I've just heard so much about this on Tick Tock so I was like okay sure I'll try it this is a repurchase for me as well pureology color fanatic 21 essential benefits multitasking leave-in spray this is all that I leave in my hair or all that I put in my hair when I blow dry it I'll just spray this in blow dry it even if I don't blow dry my hair and put this in and it just leaves my hair nice and shiny no humidity can't touch her that's actually not true but um it does kind of help tame frizz and just do what I need it to do I have like medium fine hair that is pretty wavy natural and this stuff works really really good for it so if you have like a pretty I would say basic average white hair type um I think this could really work for you and then the last thing I got is lash Paradise I didn't realize how dirty your face is that's something that he needs to work on just a little bit so that's pretty much all I got from Ulta I also got a vitamin C serum from CeraVe which I put in CeraVe syrup I put it in the fridge because I did see that if you put it in the fridge it changes color more slowly and even though I haven't opened it I just figured I would keep it in there just to maintain its efficacy and I think it'll be a part of my morning routine to make up go to the fridge put my vitamin C serum on I don't know I feel like I have been prioritizing my skincare more recently because I feel like I'm starting to look my age ooh I've always worn sunscreen every day but I'm trying to add vitamin C into my routine and I'm doing a lot in terms of like other stuff I can kind of show you I have been using the skincare line for the past couple of days and I'm really enjoying it this video is not sponsored by Duncan B but I have been really enjoying their like million step you know Korean skincare system I've been enjoying their like multi-step skincare your system and I'll tell you about it more in another video if I do decide to do a sponsorship with them but I wanted to try their products first obviously but it's been fun I love putting creams and on my face it's just fun but I'm also having a good time with my eyes I'm only like 10 into this book but I thought I'd update you before I go ahead and take a shower because my hair is gross but Inked and lies is about our main character Nova and our heroine Lila Lila at the start of the story is the five-year-old daughter of a drug dealer her father dies pretty early on in the book and I believe Jonathan is like a 17 Jonathan slash Nova it's like 17 at the start of the story he's a next door neighbor he has a bunch of brothers and that family feels like um not indebted too those children that they feel some sort of like Duty I guess you could say to Lila and her older brother who's also 17 the same age as Jonathan and so um once they go into the foster care system Jonathan and his family Jonathan slash Nova and his family are doing everything in their power to get those two back most of these books are age Gap and I really don't hate it although I don't know if this like very similar premise is going to work for me like a fourth or a fifth time at this point because it is like the fourth or fifth book in the series but you know what um I am a basic at the end of the day I feel like jelly darling has a formula that works and who am I to judge I'm having a good time the only thing that's like kind of making me like roll my eyes a little bit is the fact that for the most part we have only spent time with five-year-old Lila and she definitely has the internal like dialogue monologue whatever of someone who's like in their 20s like not even teenage like in their 20s I can't even I can't even think about my own dreams like okay no you're five years old you don't have dreams I don't mean like dreams sleeping dreams I mean like dreams for your life I don't think a five-year-old can honestly conceptualize that so having a good time with this book anyway I'm gonna go ahead and take a shower I'll be back with y'all tomorrow with some more thoughts and feelings on this book hopefully I am able to get further also um for for the video that you will hopefully see before this one I'm reading this book right now and it is so phenomenal me me and the picks are gonna go and he you know what he's gonna do I'm gonna get in that shower right there and he's gonna put his little paws up and he's gonna go like this and he's gonna scream because he doesn't like when I'm in the rain Locker isn't that right foreign happy Wednesday it is fairly bright and early not like super early but it is before noon and I'm about to leave the house and go get some stuff done which I'm feeling really good about today is gonna be packed I need to mail a couple of packages to my friends I got them some presents for our like wife anniversary is what we call it but me and my friends have been Bessie's for four years at this point we met online we've met in person now at this point too yeah I got them a couple of gifts and I need to send this off so I need to go to the post office I also need to trade in my old devices so my old like Amazon Alexa or whatever my old Kindle I know I talked about all this on Monday but I didn't get to do that stuff on Tuesday like I had anticipated and intended I did go to Ulta though which is good especially because it's like in the opposite direction of all the other tours and tasks I need to get done um so I need to get all of that stuff knocked out and then I need to come home for my therapy appointment at 3 P.M so it's like almost noon right now did I say it was bright and early it's bright and early for me okay it's bright and early for me but uh between noon and three I need to knock all this stuff out get everything packaged send it off um and I'll hopefully listen to a little bit of Words of Radiance on my way so I read a little bit last night I got a little bit farther into Inked and lies and I'm still really enjoying this but I'm also still thrown off by the fact that we are still in the eyes or the mind of a five or six year old and that she is supposed to have the knowledge and wisdom that she does it's just still kind of throwing me off a little bit and I'm really ready to get to the present day and to really see Lila and how her like unrequited Crush has developed over time and if Nova returns that because I think the whole thing that we've been like led to believe in previous books is that Lila has had a crush on Nova for forever but he doesn't see her that way which is definitely a good thing when you're doing an age Gap romance like this especially when uh I think she grew up in his house I don't know for sure like we haven't gotten that far at this point she is now in his home you definitely don't want him to like have a crush on her you know like in advance anyway I'm still liking the book I do wish it moved a little bit quicker though because again I'm like 20 in and there hasn't really been much in the way of like relationship development because we're still not in the present day so it's a little bit frustrating but I did start Words of Radiance today I don't know I feel like I'm still torn on how I want to talk about this book because I don't really want to like spoil it for people but the same time I want to be able to discuss it in depth so I'm I'm trying not to spoil too many things but I'm only into the intro of the story and it's like a flashback scene I think with yasna and her dad um and like other people as well but we get to see what it was like when he was King instead of his son so I'm intrigued so far and I'm just excited to see where this book goes Hayden was telling me that the second and third books are definitely the best ones in terms of pacing like fun and exciting things happening so I'm very excited to learn more about you know everything going on The Stormlight Archive I just want to be in the loop you know and I feel like so many people have read these books at this point to where if I do spoil things it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world but I think I can maybe refrain from that we'll see we'll see I will definitely let you know if they're spoilers you can avoid those parts of this Vlog but um I need to go and get dressed but before I do that I actually want to tell you about the sponsor of today's video Tommy John that's the cute loungewear that I'm currently wearing and I'm super excited to be working with Tommy John because Tommy John wants men and women to feel comfortable to be their true selves with no adjustment needed apparel and underwear I really like Tommy John because Comfort is really at the core of what they do as someone who pretty much lives in loungewear and pajamas I love finding a brand that is really committed to creating soft high quality pieces that are still really stylish you'll know that I'm really excited for this holiday season whether it's decorating my house or visiting friends and family and the pieces that I picked out really I feel like go well with the things that I want to do this holiday season I picked out this Henley and jogger combo and oatmeal Heather because I love a good matching set but I also like that you can mix and match colors and styles too so if you wanted shorts they have that or if you wanted a different top and bottom color they have that too it's just the ultimate cozy holiday movie outfit for me or decorating the tree outfit and then I picked this pink pajama set I've talked about it a few times at this point but I'm on the quest to be a real grown-up lately and I've gotten rid of my holy t-shirts and I've been slowly upgrading to real pajamas and this style of pajamas is my personal favorite it's breathable which is really important in Texas but it's also modest enough where I'd feel really comfortable wearing this around friends and family and then I got the Comfort smoothing triangle bralette which I'm actually wearing right now under the Henley style of bra is my go-to and I can already tell you that this particular version is my new favorite another thing that is my favorite is gift giving during the holiday season I picked out this green waffle hoodie for Hayden because he is just as obsessed with comfort as I am and he wears loungewear like 90 of the time also like me because we both work from home and I love that Tommy John also has a gift guide on their website so if you're kind of unsure of what to get a loved one have a lot of good inspiration if you'd like to get the best in Comfort this holiday season click the link in my description and use code Chandler to get 25 off plus free shipping thanks again to tommyjohn for sponsoring this video is that a boy oh are you gonna get him I'm gonna go ahead and put some jeans on and hit the road so that I can get my tasks done and hopefully get home and read for the rest you want to say that again for the camera no so the lighting is not great it's it's passable kind of this honestly isn't that bad but I don't look hot but I mean we both kind of look like Phantoms but like we're kind of we're kind of like luminescent you know you know what I think this is a good trial run for next week when the time change comes anyway it's seven o'clock we normally don't do these this late but next week um you know if the crumble flavors are good you're gonna be seeing a lot more of this lighting situation crumble cookies review and then I'll briefly tell you about the kind of semi-disaster that is the book I'm reading yeah we should get a close-up of this knee situation no no one needs to see the trash in our feet oh wow that would look sparkly she's kind of cute okay oh wow it's kind of um cubby yeah Hayden do you want to tell people the situation that occurred oh nothing I tried to order the peanut butter cookie thing that they had on here it is but peanut butter nougat featuring Snickers or something and they let me order it and then they came up to me afterwards and told me that they didn't have it and I was the only person in there so very rude well the good news is that he likes the regular chocolate chip cookies yeah so he got one of those okay we've got corn cake with honey it's a different kind of corn than we normally than we've had before in the past Blue Monster which is just Chips Ahoy with some icing that's that's hers she likes that yeah I'm into that you need that Play-Doh and we got like an almond fudge and I don't like I can enjoy and show you but she's like sparkly looking it's like a chocolate cookie and like the little like Jizzy coconut on there is like glistening you know freshly spurt it's very pearl white nice and dehydrated yeah chocolate chip chocolate chip biscuit yeah and I guess I could try all of these I I don't want to but I will I feel like you just don't want to try the Almond Drive one I'll probably still try though oh my God this is what I was really in it for it's different than the the last this one's a little structurally loose different than the last corn cookie we had she looks cute she's got cream cheese icing this looks more like I'll be more into it than the other one is this one like full of gravel like the other one that's like corn oh maybe I'll like it then I like how in last week's Vlog we were talking about how I don't like corn products but you were excited about the toilet I will definitely say that they are more on the right track with this cookie than the other like cornbread cookie where they basically just took a sugar cookie and like rolled it in cornmeal so it was just like you were chewing grains of sand it's more on the right path but I think it's still missing something like that's still too close to a sugar cookie for ma'am Hayden says give me the batter of a corn dog well no I just like I like the idea of cornbread you know and like cornbread warm butter and honey is just like it's a slapping combo this just feels lazy if you're gonna call it a corn bread cookie you know this one's never good but I like it I don't know how to describe it I already know it tastes like Play-Doh or something it's a little less play-doughy than usual I would say I think this is probably the second time that I've tried this I like it more this time there's less icing what it really reminds me of a slice of chilled cookie cake from American Cookie Company that's like the Vibes I'm getting from that from the gap yes I hate you he forgot the great front of American Cookie Company oh did I no for them I wish you could really see like on the great goop oh it's chilled oh okay they're maintaining that level of glossiness on that coconut I don't want to begin to ask questions how do you get all the way up into the like fudgy shell it's good with like a hint of sunscreen or like shampoo it's really shampoo to me yeah I know yeah it is it likes clean hair and a clean mouth did you try the chocolate chip yeah well I just had to make sure you know what it's not that bad did you did I didn't know that you like like actively the strips in it yeah and I love that you want to give her a bite yes what kind of question is that well you didn't reach for you have to put her in your damn hand well I really thought that you weren't gonna you know break the outer crust exposing it to the air making it more stale for me later but since you did that now I have to take a bite while it's still good eat it this really worked out look at this I'm like aerial level right now I'll be your Prince Eric and you like edit a little like shell bra no breasts but just the you don't want breasts I mean I do but it doesn't let's be honest before I make Hayden go into Target and look at Christmas stuff with me let me tell you a little bit about ink demise I'm 30 in and let me tell you there's nothing quite as special as going to get your car inspected and then while you're sitting on the bench next to an old man waiting for your car to be inspected you just read a scene in which the heroine is like she's walked in on this guy that she wants to get with having sex with another woman and she's like outside of the door looking in like putting her hands down her pants just flicking around being it's in like a semi-public place because this is at the motorcycle club like just has a room at the clubhouse and so she's like playing DJ while people around it just seemed a bit extreme for me right it wasn't my fave and then it Flash Forward a couple years she's engaged to a different dude and um the guy that she watched his name's Nova he like sidles up to the fiance and the girl and it's like hey what's up and the fiance is like hey you should kiss her and he's like what she's like yeah you know to prove that she doesn't actually like like you anymore and so they kiss or whatever what's the point of it all you know you made this sound like it was going to be more fun I don't know I thought the inflicting was a little zesty but for her I guess I don't know does she not put out songs anymore it's like a whole thing not so good for me because this book um a little bit of a mess is it different than the other ones that I've read in the series yes I can say that it does not feel like a retread of the other ones which is kind of nice no I'm not sure that I like Nova he seems kind of stupid your head out of your ass his name is Nova well his name's Jonathan but people call him Casanova because he pretty much anything yeah that's stupid I'm gonna go to Target foreign tell me why I saw meme today that was like I'm talking about how like former presidents and sports commentators and wear quarter Zips like wearing the same quarter zip as uh President Barack Obama I don't know man I you know hello happy Thursday um I think this is gonna be the last day of the Vlog just given some stuff and buy stuff I mean I need to submit this to the sponsor hey pickles my sir my sweet sir um he really likes to rub his face against my camera anyway I'm excited because I'm about to go to at home with my sister no it's just not a vlog if I'm not going at home it's actually not true I don't go that often but Christmas I'm going at home it is a home decor store if you're unfamiliar and I don't know if it was the last Vlog or the Vlog before that pickles god damn it stop but I did a little shop with me in a vlog kind of showed you like what that store has I just feel like they have the biggest selection of Home Decor out there and I love it anyway we're gonna go look at Christmas stuff my sister is like finally into decorating for the holiday season so she's like a senior in college I don't know she's like already looking forward to having her own place and being able to decorate it and you'll get home decor together and maybe I'll like do a little haul when I get back on like what I get it's driving me nuts though okay so the new vitamin C that I got uh I guess it's dimethicone based and it does not play oh my God it does not play well with my sunscreen I've never experienced pilling like this before this is horrible I thought at first maybe it was my sunscreen and this particular Foundation because I know historically this Foundation does not go well with um sunscreen no it's very much the vitamin C serum mixed with at sunscreen so annoying but the good news is I am getting a new sunscreen in the mail and I'm hoping that since it's I think it's a Korean sunscreen um it will play better with this vitamin C serum I just feel like American sunscreens kind of suck I'm using the Neutrogena SPF 60. I do like it it's like in a little little pump bottle and it's an affordable price which is why I really like it but I just need to stick with what I know and what I know is that Asian sunscreens are just better than American ones anyway probably getting like no sun protection today since all this is just pilling up but it's fine it's not looking that bad I guess I did a I did a little cat swap hi oh you smell the makeup on my forehead the midday cat swap okay I'm so all over the place today so sorry I was mostly just checking in to say that while I'm going on this little Expedition I also didn't get to update you yesterday but I did accomplish everything on my to-do list able to get my car inspected I send all those packages which felt really good and um you know had a little fun time with Hayden I did get a couple of things at Target that were Christmas related got a little initial ornament you know to like commemorate the fact that we got married this year and then I got this little like crochet snowflake Garland so cute I think it was like ten dollars um I'll show it to you if I do a little at home haul after this but I just thought it would be cute I don't really have a lot of Christmas garland that isn't a Greenery Garland if that makes sense and I was really noticing for Halloween that I really like that as a Decor element the only thing that I'm like a little nervous about is that I'm going to at home and going in not blind but like going a little bit clueless as to what I should be getting because I don't really need anything I feel like if I had you know my house decorated I could kind of see where there's any sort of like gaps in my Decor but um I'm not getting those storage totes down anytime soon and by that I mean like not this week probably next week oh the whole reason I even did this clip in the first place is because I wanted to update you on books um also like I didn't get to really update you again on you know what I got done yesterday but I'm now like 50 into Inked and lies I'm hoping to finish it tonight might be ambitious given the fact that I'm like so so so behind on my Sunday video but I am enjoying it um at this point we have Lila living with Nova he essentially comes to her house steals all of her stuff and brings it to his home and everybody knows this like his family knows this like the family that she grew up with I guess the booths um they know this they're like yeah she's safer with you blah blah um because Isla has taken it upon herself to kind of infiltrate this drug ring that has had really really like negative consequences on the Fallen motorcycle club and she's gonna infiltrated because she speaks Spanish and I believe that the like Kingpin or whatever is Mexican so she gets in with kingpen's wife and she's gonna work as a sex worker I believe or like as a cam girl or something like that kind of like infiltrate and get into the good graces of that family I guess crime family I don't know and since everyone's like worried about her and like doesn't think it's right that she's working for this woman I think her name's like Arena or something she's gonna be living with Nova and I don't know his character is just annoying me because I don't really understand his objections to like not wanting to be with her it makes no sense like I'm sorry he didn't have a very rough upbringing like he had a supportive family who really loved him and he's like I'm not good enough for you okay but like why where's the trauma to be honest like why are you acting like this why are you acting like you know she's too good for me and I couldn't be the guy that she needs me to be dude yeah you can like you just sleep with her and you're nice to her um you're already nice to her so just like sleep with her and um just don't sleep with other people I feel like that's pretty easy I just feel like sometimes in these books the motivations of men are confusing to me and granted you know that's real life but I don't want that in my romance don't get me wrong I like a guy who doesn't think he's good enough for the heroine because most of the time it's true but I want that to be founded in something whether that's trauma self-loathing I don't know just give me something I'm gonna do a little something something here and frankly I'm not getting any of that and I I feel like we're we're going to eventually get it but I feel like the not telling the audience not telling the reader like why Nova has objections to being with Lila don't really make sense to me like I guess if you wanted to make it as simple as age Gap like that's the taboo okay we'll go with that but but when she straight up asks him like Hey like why don't you why aren't you into me I can tell that you're like attracted to me but you don't want to go for me he doesn't say oh it's because of the age Gap he's like I'm not good enough for you so why do you feel that way sir definitely thinking way too much into this but I'm like I don't know I'm into this because it's a romance I'm into it because I need something to break up with the monotony of The Thrillers I'm reading and yeah at the same time do you want to lay down and get comfortable sir and yet I was trying to say at the same time I kind of feel like not I don't feel an emotional attachment to any of these characters like I have in the past but I am still intrigued enough to keep reading so that is what I am going to do um and I will let you know my thoughts and feelings as I continue to read Hello friends after some um troubleshooting issues with my camera microphone I think it's I think it's Dad I think she's dead this is different microphone than I have hooked into my camera hopefully the audio was decent apologies for that last talking clip because the like humming noise was enough to drive me insane hopefully it isn't too bad for you I know that I'm just like particularly sensitive to that anyway happy Friday I know I said I was gonna end this on a Thursday and fully intended to but I went to my sister's house and I helped her decorate her treat for Christmas it's like her first ever like say adult Christmas tree but I think any other time she's decorated for Christmas she hasn't had like a full six foot Christmas tree so it was just really nice to get to shop with her yesterday and like help her select things for her tree and decorate with her as well I'm actually going to have some b-roll to some Christmas music after this clip if you'd like to see us decorating her tree I love that stuff um I feel like I really didn't update you that well in the last clip that I did I feel like this has been a fairly productive week for me not in terms of reading because I haven't really done much of that but I did do a lot in my everyday life and I feel good about that I got all this tasks done and I did go to therapy I don't think I really like like talk to you about how that went it's been about six-ish months since the last time I went and I just felt like this session was really good and I'm going to be starting up on a new regimen which I am excited about I think it'd be kind of frustrating to start therapy and try you know medication or try something new and it not work out it kind of feels like well you know I think for a lot of us maybe maybe it could be wrong here going to therapy in the first place feels like such a feat in and of itself that it can feel really discouraging when the first thing you try doesn't work for you that was definitely the case for me we tried something at the end of last year that just didn't really work for me and I kind of stopped um that particular medication regimen this like April or so like under the discretion and under the advisement of my doctor but um I don't know I had felt pretty discouraged and didn't really want to go back and like I just I was like I'll figure it out myself but I I just feel like with all the stuff that's going on I think it's important for me and for you know YouTube I don't know what you're going through but it's important if you can to um not give up I guess it's just in general but especially when it comes to mental health and doing well so I'm really feeling grateful for the fact that like I am going back to therapy and also really grateful that I am trying something new I don't know if this is going to be the solution either but um I feel encouraged that it might be so anyway so I didn't share that because I don't think I really talked to you about it and it was something that was like pretty uh I would say important transformative whatever in my life this week other things I guess I did go to at home with my sister we shopped and we found some cute stuff I think I told you obviously we decorated the tree um I ended up getting a couple of things for my home as well I got this like skiing Santa I'm gonna insert some b-roll for you asking Santa some new wrapping paper and then these really oversized snowflakes I've never seen them this big before and I think it would be cute to either put in a tree or just like you know have out also got my Christmas garland that I was so hyped for and I got my Advent like Christmas Village and it is so stunning I already have it out because I don't know I just wanted to get it out and just have fun with it I'm feeling in the Christmas spirit and I'm very ready over this next couple of weeks to decorate with you I'm definitely taking you along with me for that I hope you were ready and excited I need to decorate my office for Christmas and I also need to decorate downstairs different themes I think in my office I'm going to put my black white and red tree up and then downstairs it's going to be my winter wonderland Woodland creatures bye let's go ahead and talk I guess about my final thoughts on Ancient lies and then this will be the end of the Vlog I'll leave you here I know this has been kind of a weird one kind of all over the place but Inked and lines I ended up leaving three stars it was fine it wasn't anything to write home about and I think I'm finding in Gianna darling's like later books in the series that there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of Direction and purpose which is a little bit frustrating as a big fan of her writing I think the first three books in the series are like really solid and I feel like she really knew what she was trying to do and then things got a little bit weird at book four and five this one it's like I really wanted an unrequited love story I love unrequited love stories I prefer if it's like unrequited on both sides like kind of a mutual pining they think it's unrequited sort of situation this was definitely a one-sided um unrequited situation which could work but I feel like the reveal of Jonathan slash Nova's trauma and like what caused him to not feel like he's worthy of love I think it could have been much more impactful I think the explanation made a lot of sense I think it's something that definitely could happen in real life but I think that it was kind of a throwaway thing that happened at like 70 or 80 Mark in this book and it caused definitely the conflict of the story but I didn't feel like it was very um well fleshed out well executed which is strange to me because I feel like Fiona darling really focuses on the emotion in her stories there's a lot of kind of fraternal dialogue from her characters and yeah in this story I felt like really prevalent but the really important things that should have been discussed either you know dialogue wise or internally just never really happened we don't really get to see Nova cope with things that he has been through we just get to see him kind of wallow a little bit and um I wish some I just wish some things had been like explored in a deeper way and I just don't feel like the Declaration of Love here was great either something I am noticing about her stories I think is that directors go from it being a forbidden taboo thing to immediately jumping in bed together and it doesn't seem like there is a ton of shin pull and I think in these taboo situations like it's kind of necessary for there to be push and pull like you you need characters who are trying to resist each other for the taboo to like make sense otherwise it's like why are they what's Taboo in the first place anyway I don't know if I'm just thinking too much into this it was a fine book like I gave it three stars the dirty talk this month like definitely was up to par with Jon and darling's other books and I do think this pushed the overall plot of the series forward a little bit it hoped for a little bit more but I don't know I'm I'm not mad that I read it have I read any more Awards of Radiance no I absolutely have not and now I'm again like second guessing my decision to like talk about these in weekly reading Vlogs do I instead just want to do dedicated Vlogs not entirely sure but I guess I have time to decide since I didn't really discuss it in this video but um that's really it for me I hope you enjoyed coming along with me this week I think it was a little all over the place but I feel like that is just my life at the moment um I love you all so much thanks so much for watching this video again stay tuned for the next couple of minutes if you want to watch that Christmas b-roll otherwise until next time foreign and I can promise it doesn't matter if the snow is falling here I wanna hang out with my friendshello welcome back to my channel and welcome to the start of another weekly reading Vlog I am not excited to be filming this that's actually not true but I just feel like I say I'm excited every time and this time you know what I am excited but I'm also sort of like tentative because this is an absolutely insane week in my life I am working on my Choose Your Own Adventure Vlog that I am going to be posting on Sunday of this week and that has really been just swamping me down it's a Tuesday not a Monday that's why I'm starting this late it's just I've been overwhelmed with The Thrillers that I'm reading for that video in a good way like their audiobooks it's fun it's a nice listening experience but I just feel like I haven't gotten a lot of time to talk to you all my friends and to uh just get on with my week and like get get moving get Kraken but Tuesday is that day today we are doing some stuff more in the Quest for me to get my life together and I hope you are ready to come along with me so on the docket for today I think I'm really intent on doing a lot of the things that I've been putting off forever which is packaging gifts for my friends that I have purchased for them I just like never sent out I need to package up some returns Pro tip if you have old Tech turn in that before it becomes so obsolete that you can't get money for it I was looking through my closet in my office actually and I found an old like Amazon Echo or Amazon Alexa device and I was like I don't ever use this why don't I just send this back to Amazon and get 25 for it so I need to do that and package up a Kindle as well I also need to stop by Ulta for some more concealer I'll probably buy some like other goodies and you know do a little haul for you later on in the week probably tomorrow but the biggest thing that I'd really like to get done for this week besides reading would be to clean my house I know thrilling stuff but I really want to prep for the upcoming winter season for Christmas I have all of my Halloween decor behind me my fall decor and I think it'd be really nice to be able to put all of that stuff away in advance usually I do everything all at once I take down all of my Halloween stuff and up my Christmas stuff kind of in the same day but I don't want to do that this time I really want to take my time with taking down that fall Decor putting it in my totes in a very clean and organized way if I'm gonna rush I just kind of throw things around but I want to make sure everything is really nice and organized so that I can deep clean my house before getting out my Christmas stuff I am looking forward to a really like let's say Decor packed Christmas this year I've purchased some new things I'm really excited about I'm excited to get everything out but I feel like if you have a lot of Decor out it can look cluttered and it can also be hard to like clean around the stuff that you're putting out so again gonna take the fall stuff down going to kind of clean my house maybe not clean deeply my house this week but take the stuff down in anticipation of cleaning and anticipation putting up my Christmas decor I've already talked to Hayden about it and I think I'm going to continue on with the tradition that I had last year which is to put up my Christmas tree on my birthday which is November 14th so I have some time I have some time before that happens I think today is November 2nd so I have some time to like clean organize get things ready and then obviously I'm going to be reading this week let me go grab my selections for what I am hoping to get finished so the two books that I have been kind of eyeing from my physical TBR lately are England Lies by Gianna darling and Babel by RF Quang I didn't think that I would be purchasing this but I had some leftover money from a trade-in I guess you could say or like I sold some books to have phrase books had some cash from that and decided to use some of that cash for this book I don't know it was one of those books that like everybody was talking about I felt like I needed to join in on the hype and the party and I could be wrong but I feel like this is a standalone novel which makes it more appealing and even if it is a series I don't think it's gonna be like some 10 book series so I feel like it's less of a commitment I don't know much about this although it seems a little like dark academia-esque so I need to give this one a try and give you like my thoughts and feelings I think it might be ambitious to try to finish this while I'm also reading two Thrillers a day but like I'll give you my thoughts and feelings as I read if I don't finish it this week I'll finish it next week and then lies I think is going to be the perfect contrast kind of to the other stuff that I'm reading you know a fantasy and then a bunch of Thrillers I need a romance in my life and this one follows our main character Nova I want to say and his relationship with this girl who's been like pining for him for years and years he's like the Pretty Boy of the motorcycle club I'm very excited for the story it's also very long so I don't know how hard it's going to be to get through this one as well but these are kind of my goals for this week um other things um crumble cookies was closed yesterday I was actually going to start this Vlog last night a crumble was closed and I didn't what else was I gonna do in the car with Hayden just like sit there and talk no so if I do get crumble later on this week I will do a little crumple review but uh let's go ahead and get time lapsing I think I'm gonna go ahead and pull down some of this fall Decor up here and the fall Decor downstairs we can just like get started on the right foot this week foreign together take me to the Jungle teach me a poem sing to you a song with you I am blessed is hi do you need me to hold you again hello it is later I actually was able to run some of my errands today we had to go get food since we didn't have any groceries super fun and exciting stuff so I was able to go to Ulta so I was going to give you a little Ulta haul and tell you how I'm feeling about Inked and lies and also break the news to you sadly that I will not be reading Babel in this video after I told you that I was going to read Babble I actually asked people on Instagram a couple of days ago like hey what's your favorite book of 2022 because I like to do that I like to read your favorite books of a given year Babble by far is the most loved book of 2022 so I want to read that for that video so I'm going to save it and instead I'm going to read Words of Radiance and like talk about it in this video I was like really on the fence about what I wanted to do about about Stormlight Archive if I wanted to do designated Vlogs or whatever I've decided I don't want to do that I just want to enjoy the books and just update you as I read them so first let me give you a little Ulta haul it's very unexciting first up shape tape I did in fact buy a full size of this I normally don't I normally buy the minis because for some reason the big size of this always gets really like gum Gummy and like gunked up near the opening and it grosses me out and I hate it but it's just more cost effective obviously to buy the full size so I did that and I'm gonna try to keep it upright and see if that helps this time and obviously I got it in 8B porcelain beige the lightest shade that they have new products for me that I tried I kind of have it on it's like faded though is the tarte maracuja juicy lip plump in mixed berries love this already like it's so delightful it's just a slippery I guess you could say lipstick and it has a pretty intense tingle which I like definitely not a burn but A tingle and I've just heard so much about this on Tick Tock so I was like okay sure I'll try it this is a repurchase for me as well pureology color fanatic 21 essential benefits multitasking leave-in spray this is all that I leave in my hair or all that I put in my hair when I blow dry it I'll just spray this in blow dry it even if I don't blow dry my hair and put this in and it just leaves my hair nice and shiny no humidity can't touch her that's actually not true but um it does kind of help tame frizz and just do what I need it to do I have like medium fine hair that is pretty wavy natural and this stuff works really really good for it so if you have like a pretty I would say basic average white hair type um I think this could really work for you and then the last thing I got is lash Paradise I didn't realize how dirty your face is that's something that he needs to work on just a little bit so that's pretty much all I got from Ulta I also got a vitamin C serum from CeraVe which I put in CeraVe syrup I put it in the fridge because I did see that if you put it in the fridge it changes color more slowly and even though I haven't opened it I just figured I would keep it in there just to maintain its efficacy and I think it'll be a part of my morning routine to make up go to the fridge put my vitamin C serum on I don't know I feel like I have been prioritizing my skincare more recently because I feel like I'm starting to look my age ooh I've always worn sunscreen every day but I'm trying to add vitamin C into my routine and I'm doing a lot in terms of like other stuff I can kind of show you I have been using the skincare line for the past couple of days and I'm really enjoying it this video is not sponsored by Duncan B but I have been really enjoying their like million step you know Korean skincare system I've been enjoying their like multi-step skincare your system and I'll tell you about it more in another video if I do decide to do a sponsorship with them but I wanted to try their products first obviously but it's been fun I love putting creams and on my face it's just fun but I'm also having a good time with my eyes I'm only like 10 into this book but I thought I'd update you before I go ahead and take a shower because my hair is gross but Inked and lies is about our main character Nova and our heroine Lila Lila at the start of the story is the five-year-old daughter of a drug dealer her father dies pretty early on in the book and I believe Jonathan is like a 17 Jonathan slash Nova it's like 17 at the start of the story he's a next door neighbor he has a bunch of brothers and that family feels like um not indebted too those children that they feel some sort of like Duty I guess you could say to Lila and her older brother who's also 17 the same age as Jonathan and so um once they go into the foster care system Jonathan and his family Jonathan slash Nova and his family are doing everything in their power to get those two back most of these books are age Gap and I really don't hate it although I don't know if this like very similar premise is going to work for me like a fourth or a fifth time at this point because it is like the fourth or fifth book in the series but you know what um I am a basic at the end of the day I feel like jelly darling has a formula that works and who am I to judge I'm having a good time the only thing that's like kind of making me like roll my eyes a little bit is the fact that for the most part we have only spent time with five-year-old Lila and she definitely has the internal like dialogue monologue whatever of someone who's like in their 20s like not even teenage like in their 20s I can't even I can't even think about my own dreams like okay no you're five years old you don't have dreams I don't mean like dreams sleeping dreams I mean like dreams for your life I don't think a five-year-old can honestly conceptualize that so having a good time with this book anyway I'm gonna go ahead and take a shower I'll be back with y'all tomorrow with some more thoughts and feelings on this book hopefully I am able to get further also um for for the video that you will hopefully see before this one I'm reading this book right now and it is so phenomenal me me and the picks are gonna go and he you know what he's gonna do I'm gonna get in that shower right there and he's gonna put his little paws up and he's gonna go like this and he's gonna scream because he doesn't like when I'm in the rain Locker isn't that right foreign happy Wednesday it is fairly bright and early not like super early but it is before noon and I'm about to leave the house and go get some stuff done which I'm feeling really good about today is gonna be packed I need to mail a couple of packages to my friends I got them some presents for our like wife anniversary is what we call it but me and my friends have been Bessie's for four years at this point we met online we've met in person now at this point too yeah I got them a couple of gifts and I need to send this off so I need to go to the post office I also need to trade in my old devices so my old like Amazon Alexa or whatever my old Kindle I know I talked about all this on Monday but I didn't get to do that stuff on Tuesday like I had anticipated and intended I did go to Ulta though which is good especially because it's like in the opposite direction of all the other tours and tasks I need to get done um so I need to get all of that stuff knocked out and then I need to come home for my therapy appointment at 3 P.M so it's like almost noon right now did I say it was bright and early it's bright and early for me okay it's bright and early for me but uh between noon and three I need to knock all this stuff out get everything packaged send it off um and I'll hopefully listen to a little bit of Words of Radiance on my way so I read a little bit last night I got a little bit farther into Inked and lies and I'm still really enjoying this but I'm also still thrown off by the fact that we are still in the eyes or the mind of a five or six year old and that she is supposed to have the knowledge and wisdom that she does it's just still kind of throwing me off a little bit and I'm really ready to get to the present day and to really see Lila and how her like unrequited Crush has developed over time and if Nova returns that because I think the whole thing that we've been like led to believe in previous books is that Lila has had a crush on Nova for forever but he doesn't see her that way which is definitely a good thing when you're doing an age Gap romance like this especially when uh I think she grew up in his house I don't know for sure like we haven't gotten that far at this point she is now in his home you definitely don't want him to like have a crush on her you know like in advance anyway I'm still liking the book I do wish it moved a little bit quicker though because again I'm like 20 in and there hasn't really been much in the way of like relationship development because we're still not in the present day so it's a little bit frustrating but I did start Words of Radiance today I don't know I feel like I'm still torn on how I want to talk about this book because I don't really want to like spoil it for people but the same time I want to be able to discuss it in depth so I'm I'm trying not to spoil too many things but I'm only into the intro of the story and it's like a flashback scene I think with yasna and her dad um and like other people as well but we get to see what it was like when he was King instead of his son so I'm intrigued so far and I'm just excited to see where this book goes Hayden was telling me that the second and third books are definitely the best ones in terms of pacing like fun and exciting things happening so I'm very excited to learn more about you know everything going on The Stormlight Archive I just want to be in the loop you know and I feel like so many people have read these books at this point to where if I do spoil things it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world but I think I can maybe refrain from that we'll see we'll see I will definitely let you know if they're spoilers you can avoid those parts of this Vlog but um I need to go and get dressed but before I do that I actually want to tell you about the sponsor of today's video Tommy John that's the cute loungewear that I'm currently wearing and I'm super excited to be working with Tommy John because Tommy John wants men and women to feel comfortable to be their true selves with no adjustment needed apparel and underwear I really like Tommy John because Comfort is really at the core of what they do as someone who pretty much lives in loungewear and pajamas I love finding a brand that is really committed to creating soft high quality pieces that are still really stylish you'll know that I'm really excited for this holiday season whether it's decorating my house or visiting friends and family and the pieces that I picked out really I feel like go well with the things that I want to do this holiday season I picked out this Henley and jogger combo and oatmeal Heather because I love a good matching set but I also like that you can mix and match colors and styles too so if you wanted shorts they have that or if you wanted a different top and bottom color they have that too it's just the ultimate cozy holiday movie outfit for me or decorating the tree outfit and then I picked this pink pajama set I've talked about it a few times at this point but I'm on the quest to be a real grown-up lately and I've gotten rid of my holy t-shirts and I've been slowly upgrading to real pajamas and this style of pajamas is my personal favorite it's breathable which is really important in Texas but it's also modest enough where I'd feel really comfortable wearing this around friends and family and then I got the Comfort smoothing triangle bralette which I'm actually wearing right now under the Henley style of bra is my go-to and I can already tell you that this particular version is my new favorite another thing that is my favorite is gift giving during the holiday season I picked out this green waffle hoodie for Hayden because he is just as obsessed with comfort as I am and he wears loungewear like 90 of the time also like me because we both work from home and I love that Tommy John also has a gift guide on their website so if you're kind of unsure of what to get a loved one have a lot of good inspiration if you'd like to get the best in Comfort this holiday season click the link in my description and use code Chandler to get 25 off plus free shipping thanks again to tommyjohn for sponsoring this video is that a boy oh are you gonna get him I'm gonna go ahead and put some jeans on and hit the road so that I can get my tasks done and hopefully get home and read for the rest you want to say that again for the camera no so the lighting is not great it's it's passable kind of this honestly isn't that bad but I don't look hot but I mean we both kind of look like Phantoms but like we're kind of we're kind of like luminescent you know you know what I think this is a good trial run for next week when the time change comes anyway it's seven o'clock we normally don't do these this late but next week um you know if the crumble flavors are good you're gonna be seeing a lot more of this lighting situation crumble cookies review and then I'll briefly tell you about the kind of semi-disaster that is the book I'm reading yeah we should get a close-up of this knee situation no no one needs to see the trash in our feet oh wow that would look sparkly she's kind of cute okay oh wow it's kind of um cubby yeah Hayden do you want to tell people the situation that occurred oh nothing I tried to order the peanut butter cookie thing that they had on here it is but peanut butter nougat featuring Snickers or something and they let me order it and then they came up to me afterwards and told me that they didn't have it and I was the only person in there so very rude well the good news is that he likes the regular chocolate chip cookies yeah so he got one of those okay we've got corn cake with honey it's a different kind of corn than we normally than we've had before in the past Blue Monster which is just Chips Ahoy with some icing that's that's hers she likes that yeah I'm into that you need that Play-Doh and we got like an almond fudge and I don't like I can enjoy and show you but she's like sparkly looking it's like a chocolate cookie and like the little like Jizzy coconut on there is like glistening you know freshly spurt it's very pearl white nice and dehydrated yeah chocolate chip chocolate chip biscuit yeah and I guess I could try all of these I I don't want to but I will I feel like you just don't want to try the Almond Drive one I'll probably still try though oh my God this is what I was really in it for it's different than the the last this one's a little structurally loose different than the last corn cookie we had she looks cute she's got cream cheese icing this looks more like I'll be more into it than the other one is this one like full of gravel like the other one that's like corn oh maybe I'll like it then I like how in last week's Vlog we were talking about how I don't like corn products but you were excited about the toilet I will definitely say that they are more on the right track with this cookie than the other like cornbread cookie where they basically just took a sugar cookie and like rolled it in cornmeal so it was just like you were chewing grains of sand it's more on the right path but I think it's still missing something like that's still too close to a sugar cookie for ma'am Hayden says give me the batter of a corn dog well no I just like I like the idea of cornbread you know and like cornbread warm butter and honey is just like it's a slapping combo this just feels lazy if you're gonna call it a corn bread cookie you know this one's never good but I like it I don't know how to describe it I already know it tastes like Play-Doh or something it's a little less play-doughy than usual I would say I think this is probably the second time that I've tried this I like it more this time there's less icing what it really reminds me of a slice of chilled cookie cake from American Cookie Company that's like the Vibes I'm getting from that from the gap yes I hate you he forgot the great front of American Cookie Company oh did I no for them I wish you could really see like on the great goop oh it's chilled oh okay they're maintaining that level of glossiness on that coconut I don't want to begin to ask questions how do you get all the way up into the like fudgy shell it's good with like a hint of sunscreen or like shampoo it's really shampoo to me yeah I know yeah it is it likes clean hair and a clean mouth did you try the chocolate chip yeah well I just had to make sure you know what it's not that bad did you did I didn't know that you like like actively the strips in it yeah and I love that you want to give her a bite yes what kind of question is that well you didn't reach for you have to put her in your damn hand well I really thought that you weren't gonna you know break the outer crust exposing it to the air making it more stale for me later but since you did that now I have to take a bite while it's still good eat it this really worked out look at this I'm like aerial level right now I'll be your Prince Eric and you like edit a little like shell bra no breasts but just the you don't want breasts I mean I do but it doesn't let's be honest before I make Hayden go into Target and look at Christmas stuff with me let me tell you a little bit about ink demise I'm 30 in and let me tell you there's nothing quite as special as going to get your car inspected and then while you're sitting on the bench next to an old man waiting for your car to be inspected you just read a scene in which the heroine is like she's walked in on this guy that she wants to get with having sex with another woman and she's like outside of the door looking in like putting her hands down her pants just flicking around being it's in like a semi-public place because this is at the motorcycle club like just has a room at the clubhouse and so she's like playing DJ while people around it just seemed a bit extreme for me right it wasn't my fave and then it Flash Forward a couple years she's engaged to a different dude and um the guy that she watched his name's Nova he like sidles up to the fiance and the girl and it's like hey what's up and the fiance is like hey you should kiss her and he's like what she's like yeah you know to prove that she doesn't actually like like you anymore and so they kiss or whatever what's the point of it all you know you made this sound like it was going to be more fun I don't know I thought the inflicting was a little zesty but for her I guess I don't know does she not put out songs anymore it's like a whole thing not so good for me because this book um a little bit of a mess is it different than the other ones that I've read in the series yes I can say that it does not feel like a retread of the other ones which is kind of nice no I'm not sure that I like Nova he seems kind of stupid your head out of your ass his name is Nova well his name's Jonathan but people call him Casanova because he pretty much anything yeah that's stupid I'm gonna go to Target foreign tell me why I saw meme today that was like I'm talking about how like former presidents and sports commentators and wear quarter Zips like wearing the same quarter zip as uh President Barack Obama I don't know man I you know hello happy Thursday um I think this is gonna be the last day of the Vlog just given some stuff and buy stuff I mean I need to submit this to the sponsor hey pickles my sir my sweet sir um he really likes to rub his face against my camera anyway I'm excited because I'm about to go to at home with my sister no it's just not a vlog if I'm not going at home it's actually not true I don't go that often but Christmas I'm going at home it is a home decor store if you're unfamiliar and I don't know if it was the last Vlog or the Vlog before that pickles god damn it stop but I did a little shop with me in a vlog kind of showed you like what that store has I just feel like they have the biggest selection of Home Decor out there and I love it anyway we're gonna go look at Christmas stuff my sister is like finally into decorating for the holiday season so she's like a senior in college I don't know she's like already looking forward to having her own place and being able to decorate it and you'll get home decor together and maybe I'll like do a little haul when I get back on like what I get it's driving me nuts though okay so the new vitamin C that I got uh I guess it's dimethicone based and it does not play oh my God it does not play well with my sunscreen I've never experienced pilling like this before this is horrible I thought at first maybe it was my sunscreen and this particular Foundation because I know historically this Foundation does not go well with um sunscreen no it's very much the vitamin C serum mixed with at sunscreen so annoying but the good news is I am getting a new sunscreen in the mail and I'm hoping that since it's I think it's a Korean sunscreen um it will play better with this vitamin C serum I just feel like American sunscreens kind of suck I'm using the Neutrogena SPF 60. I do like it it's like in a little little pump bottle and it's an affordable price which is why I really like it but I just need to stick with what I know and what I know is that Asian sunscreens are just better than American ones anyway probably getting like no sun protection today since all this is just pilling up but it's fine it's not looking that bad I guess I did a I did a little cat swap hi oh you smell the makeup on my forehead the midday cat swap okay I'm so all over the place today so sorry I was mostly just checking in to say that while I'm going on this little Expedition I also didn't get to update you yesterday but I did accomplish everything on my to-do list able to get my car inspected I send all those packages which felt really good and um you know had a little fun time with Hayden I did get a couple of things at Target that were Christmas related got a little initial ornament you know to like commemorate the fact that we got married this year and then I got this little like crochet snowflake Garland so cute I think it was like ten dollars um I'll show it to you if I do a little at home haul after this but I just thought it would be cute I don't really have a lot of Christmas garland that isn't a Greenery Garland if that makes sense and I was really noticing for Halloween that I really like that as a Decor element the only thing that I'm like a little nervous about is that I'm going to at home and going in not blind but like going a little bit clueless as to what I should be getting because I don't really need anything I feel like if I had you know my house decorated I could kind of see where there's any sort of like gaps in my Decor but um I'm not getting those storage totes down anytime soon and by that I mean like not this week probably next week oh the whole reason I even did this clip in the first place is because I wanted to update you on books um also like I didn't get to really update you again on you know what I got done yesterday but I'm now like 50 into Inked and lies I'm hoping to finish it tonight might be ambitious given the fact that I'm like so so so behind on my Sunday video but I am enjoying it um at this point we have Lila living with Nova he essentially comes to her house steals all of her stuff and brings it to his home and everybody knows this like his family knows this like the family that she grew up with I guess the booths um they know this they're like yeah she's safer with you blah blah um because Isla has taken it upon herself to kind of infiltrate this drug ring that has had really really like negative consequences on the Fallen motorcycle club and she's gonna infiltrated because she speaks Spanish and I believe that the like Kingpin or whatever is Mexican so she gets in with kingpen's wife and she's gonna work as a sex worker I believe or like as a cam girl or something like that kind of like infiltrate and get into the good graces of that family I guess crime family I don't know and since everyone's like worried about her and like doesn't think it's right that she's working for this woman I think her name's like Arena or something she's gonna be living with Nova and I don't know his character is just annoying me because I don't really understand his objections to like not wanting to be with her it makes no sense like I'm sorry he didn't have a very rough upbringing like he had a supportive family who really loved him and he's like I'm not good enough for you okay but like why where's the trauma to be honest like why are you acting like this why are you acting like you know she's too good for me and I couldn't be the guy that she needs me to be dude yeah you can like you just sleep with her and you're nice to her um you're already nice to her so just like sleep with her and um just don't sleep with other people I feel like that's pretty easy I just feel like sometimes in these books the motivations of men are confusing to me and granted you know that's real life but I don't want that in my romance don't get me wrong I like a guy who doesn't think he's good enough for the heroine because most of the time it's true but I want that to be founded in something whether that's trauma self-loathing I don't know just give me something I'm gonna do a little something something here and frankly I'm not getting any of that and I I feel like we're we're going to eventually get it but I feel like the not telling the audience not telling the reader like why Nova has objections to being with Lila don't really make sense to me like I guess if you wanted to make it as simple as age Gap like that's the taboo okay we'll go with that but but when she straight up asks him like Hey like why don't you why aren't you into me I can tell that you're like attracted to me but you don't want to go for me he doesn't say oh it's because of the age Gap he's like I'm not good enough for you so why do you feel that way sir definitely thinking way too much into this but I'm like I don't know I'm into this because it's a romance I'm into it because I need something to break up with the monotony of The Thrillers I'm reading and yeah at the same time do you want to lay down and get comfortable sir and yet I was trying to say at the same time I kind of feel like not I don't feel an emotional attachment to any of these characters like I have in the past but I am still intrigued enough to keep reading so that is what I am going to do um and I will let you know my thoughts and feelings as I continue to read Hello friends after some um troubleshooting issues with my camera microphone I think it's I think it's Dad I think she's dead this is different microphone than I have hooked into my camera hopefully the audio was decent apologies for that last talking clip because the like humming noise was enough to drive me insane hopefully it isn't too bad for you I know that I'm just like particularly sensitive to that anyway happy Friday I know I said I was gonna end this on a Thursday and fully intended to but I went to my sister's house and I helped her decorate her treat for Christmas it's like her first ever like say adult Christmas tree but I think any other time she's decorated for Christmas she hasn't had like a full six foot Christmas tree so it was just really nice to get to shop with her yesterday and like help her select things for her tree and decorate with her as well I'm actually going to have some b-roll to some Christmas music after this clip if you'd like to see us decorating her tree I love that stuff um I feel like I really didn't update you that well in the last clip that I did I feel like this has been a fairly productive week for me not in terms of reading because I haven't really done much of that but I did do a lot in my everyday life and I feel good about that I got all this tasks done and I did go to therapy I don't think I really like like talk to you about how that went it's been about six-ish months since the last time I went and I just felt like this session was really good and I'm going to be starting up on a new regimen which I am excited about I think it'd be kind of frustrating to start therapy and try you know medication or try something new and it not work out it kind of feels like well you know I think for a lot of us maybe maybe it could be wrong here going to therapy in the first place feels like such a feat in and of itself that it can feel really discouraging when the first thing you try doesn't work for you that was definitely the case for me we tried something at the end of last year that just didn't really work for me and I kind of stopped um that particular medication regimen this like April or so like under the discretion and under the advisement of my doctor but um I don't know I had felt pretty discouraged and didn't really want to go back and like I just I was like I'll figure it out myself but I I just feel like with all the stuff that's going on I think it's important for me and for you know YouTube I don't know what you're going through but it's important if you can to um not give up I guess it's just in general but especially when it comes to mental health and doing well so I'm really feeling grateful for the fact that like I am going back to therapy and also really grateful that I am trying something new I don't know if this is going to be the solution either but um I feel encouraged that it might be so anyway so I didn't share that because I don't think I really talked to you about it and it was something that was like pretty uh I would say important transformative whatever in my life this week other things I guess I did go to at home with my sister we shopped and we found some cute stuff I think I told you obviously we decorated the tree um I ended up getting a couple of things for my home as well I got this like skiing Santa I'm gonna insert some b-roll for you asking Santa some new wrapping paper and then these really oversized snowflakes I've never seen them this big before and I think it would be cute to either put in a tree or just like you know have out also got my Christmas garland that I was so hyped for and I got my Advent like Christmas Village and it is so stunning I already have it out because I don't know I just wanted to get it out and just have fun with it I'm feeling in the Christmas spirit and I'm very ready over this next couple of weeks to decorate with you I'm definitely taking you along with me for that I hope you were ready and excited I need to decorate my office for Christmas and I also need to decorate downstairs different themes I think in my office I'm going to put my black white and red tree up and then downstairs it's going to be my winter wonderland Woodland creatures bye let's go ahead and talk I guess about my final thoughts on Ancient lies and then this will be the end of the Vlog I'll leave you here I know this has been kind of a weird one kind of all over the place but Inked and lines I ended up leaving three stars it was fine it wasn't anything to write home about and I think I'm finding in Gianna darling's like later books in the series that there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of Direction and purpose which is a little bit frustrating as a big fan of her writing I think the first three books in the series are like really solid and I feel like she really knew what she was trying to do and then things got a little bit weird at book four and five this one it's like I really wanted an unrequited love story I love unrequited love stories I prefer if it's like unrequited on both sides like kind of a mutual pining they think it's unrequited sort of situation this was definitely a one-sided um unrequited situation which could work but I feel like the reveal of Jonathan slash Nova's trauma and like what caused him to not feel like he's worthy of love I think it could have been much more impactful I think the explanation made a lot of sense I think it's something that definitely could happen in real life but I think that it was kind of a throwaway thing that happened at like 70 or 80 Mark in this book and it caused definitely the conflict of the story but I didn't feel like it was very um well fleshed out well executed which is strange to me because I feel like Fiona darling really focuses on the emotion in her stories there's a lot of kind of fraternal dialogue from her characters and yeah in this story I felt like really prevalent but the really important things that should have been discussed either you know dialogue wise or internally just never really happened we don't really get to see Nova cope with things that he has been through we just get to see him kind of wallow a little bit and um I wish some I just wish some things had been like explored in a deeper way and I just don't feel like the Declaration of Love here was great either something I am noticing about her stories I think is that directors go from it being a forbidden taboo thing to immediately jumping in bed together and it doesn't seem like there is a ton of shin pull and I think in these taboo situations like it's kind of necessary for there to be push and pull like you you need characters who are trying to resist each other for the taboo to like make sense otherwise it's like why are they what's Taboo in the first place anyway I don't know if I'm just thinking too much into this it was a fine book like I gave it three stars the dirty talk this month like definitely was up to par with Jon and darling's other books and I do think this pushed the overall plot of the series forward a little bit it hoped for a little bit more but I don't know I'm I'm not mad that I read it have I read any more Awards of Radiance no I absolutely have not and now I'm again like second guessing my decision to like talk about these in weekly reading Vlogs do I instead just want to do dedicated Vlogs not entirely sure but I guess I have time to decide since I didn't really discuss it in this video but um that's really it for me I hope you enjoyed coming along with me this week I think it was a little all over the place but I feel like that is just my life at the moment um I love you all so much thanks so much for watching this video again stay tuned for the next couple of minutes if you want to watch that Christmas b-roll otherwise until next time foreign and I can promise it doesn't matter if the snow is falling here I wanna hang out with my friends\n"